About

Vanguard of War - Archon Studio

$269,111

pledged of $45,000 goal

1,851

backers

Vanguard of War (VoW) is a 1-4 player game focused on the defense of a small church deep inside the decaying ruins of a once great city now known only as “the Whispers.” Players will use their heroes to hold the line against seemingly endless waves of demons while their allies inside the church desperately attempt to learn how to use the fel army's own doomsday weapon against them.

Vanguard of War will be available in English, German, Spanish and French. Selection will be possible when the Pledge Manager goes live after the Kickstarter.

Beasts of War's Lets Play Vanguard of War:

UndeadViking review of Vanguard of War:

VoW miniatures are made from a specially produced HIPS-based material. It is able to hold an amazing amount of detail (similar to resin minis) while at the same time providing the durability needed for regular play. Each miniature is produced as a single piece, thus no need for assembly. You will be ready to play straight from the box!

All molds for base game miniatures are already produced! Now, we are asking KS community to help us enter the mass production and deliver the Vanguard of War to wide audience! Join us on the Vanguard!

The entire production process will be completed within the EU (Poland), avoiding any fulfilment delays that can occur when production is performed in China. Vanguard of War will be Archon Studio's first game fully produced in-house, and we're excited about the possibilities for the future. We've secured the necessary machinery, hired competent staff and will oversee the entire process from the beginning until the last package is shipped to our backers!

Vanguard of War is a tower defense game, tasking players with the defense of the Church of the Everlasting Covenant from wave after wave of demons. Players will need to use every tool in their heroes’ arsenals to slay the demons before they can reach the church and recover their doomsday artifact.

Heroes

The heroes are the valiant men and women trying desperately to defend the church from certain destruction. They must buy enough time for their allies to turn the tide of the war before it truly begins.

Each hero comes with its miniature and two stat cards. The ﬁrst card contains an illustration of the hero, their starting statistics such as Health Points and Speed, and two squares at the bottom for their main weapon and a passive ability.

The other card has two slots at the top for the hero to equip consumables and a list of the hero's special skills at the bottom.

The base game of VoW includes four heroes, each including a class-specific starting consumable as seen below.

When a hero obtains seven Essence and one Ascension, they may upgrade one of their hero cards to increase their statistics or unlock new skills. The upgraded side of each hero card has a gold Rank symbol on the left of the hero's name.

Demons

The demon armies are relentless, spawning from their Spawn Points at the beginning of every round until the Overlord appears. Demons are categorized into three distinct types: Overlords, Abominations, and Minions.

Overlords are greater demons who serve as the lieutenants and generals of the demon armies. Defeating an Overlord is an impressive feat and doing so heralds the impending conclusion of a Tier. The base game of VoW comes with one Overlord, the grotesque Taskmaster, as seen in the center of the image above.

Greater demons in their own right, Abominations are the primary assault force of the demonic armies. Often accompanied by lesser demon Minions, they will bring the church crashing down on top of the heroes if they are not slain. There are three types of Abominations in the base game of Vanguard of War: Felstrafers, Harvesters, and Succubi.

Minions are the lesser demons that serve the Abominations and Overlords as part of their wave. Any incoming damage is ﬁrst applied to Minions (unless otherwise noted) before being applied to their greater demonic masters. There are three types of Minions in the base game of VoW, each providing a unique bonus to the entire wave.

Game Board

The center of the game board for VoW is a 2x2 tile representing the Church of the Everlasting Covenant. The church is considered one square, or “field,” able to be occupied by all four heroes at the same time. The rest of the board consists of 1x1 fields of three varieties: Ruins, Spawn Points, and lanes. There are a total of 40 Ruin fields the heroes will use to move about the board to attack demons and can explore to discover valuable consumables, essence, or hidden perils. Demons spawn from Spawn Points and travel on lane fields as they make their way to the church.

Exploration Deck

When a hero steps on an unexplored Ruin field, they have the option of spending 1 Action Point to explore. Exploration allows the player to draw one card from the Exploration Deck, choosing to risk great danger for even greater reward. There are three different types of Exploration Deck cards:

Consumables – These cards can be equipped by the hero who draws them and can be utilized during play whenever that hero needs to. If the hero already has the maximum of two consumables equipped when drawing a new one, they can choose to discard a card to make room.

Encounters – The Whispers is not without its dangers and venturing too deep into the unknown can have disastrous consequences. These cards provide instant, often negative, effects on the hero or the entire group. Thankfully, there are fewer encounter cards than the other two.

Empowerment – The most treasured of all, empowerment cards are the materials needed to upgrade heroes, turning them from soldiers into legends. Both Essence and Ascension can be found in the Exploration Deck.

Event Deck

Beginning with Tier 2, players will draw Event cards that can have a profound impact on both sides of the battle. There are two Event Decks in VoW: Darkness and Hope.

Darkness – The Darkness Deck represents the ever-increasing peril the heroes face as the demon armies flood out from their citadel. The deck bolsters the demons in various ways, making their march to the Church of the Everlasting Covenant all the more ruthless and effective.

Hope – The Hope Deck represents the perseverance of the heroes and the rest of the Fateeran Militia. The deck provides reinforcements and other bonuses to the heroes to aid in their defense of the church.

VoW is a game rich with detailed miniatures and exceptional art, but behind the presentation is an easy to learn but difficult to master gameplay experience. You will be forced to weigh every decision as a single misstep could be catastrophic. If you wish to try the game before you pledge, you can download the WIP print and play.

Shipping will be charged via our Pledge Manager system after the Kickstarter campaign ends based on the actual costs incurred to ship. After successfully delivering LOAD in record time, we know what to expect when it comes to shipping and we are prepared to do it again.

Below is a list of rough estimates for shipping. These are just estimates, and costs may rise based on weight increases from unlocked stretch goals and optional buys you choose.

USA & CA: $10 - $15

EU: $10 - $20

Australia: $15 - $20

Rest of the World: $20 - $30

By default, games will be shipped after everything is produced. However, as base games will be produced first, while Pledge Manager is live, you will be able to choose to have base game sent to you as soon as it is produced and have the rest shipped later. This separate shipping will have to be paid by you via Pledge Manager.

In its short lifetime, Archon has helped 12 Kickstarter projects come to life by providing manufacturing and other services and products to companies.

We decided to make a name for ourselves as a creator of games not just components, so we designed, produced, and delivered League of Ancient Defenders (LOAD) as a solo project and wish to continue that work with the release of VoW.

Money-Back Guarantee

We are so confident you will enjoy Vanguard of War, we’re offering a full refund if you are not completely satisfied with the game. If you decide you do not like the game within 60 days after the Kickstarter campaign is over, we will refund 100% of your money. If more than 60 days have passed (but before shipment), we will refund the amount you pledged minus Kickstarter and payment process fees. After a pledge has been shipped to you, you will have the right to return the product to us for a refund within 14 days of receiving it if you are not happy with the final product.

Delivery Deadlines Will Be Met

We set extremely optimistic delivery dates for our previous campaign and still managed to pull them off. Final packages for the English version of LOAD are being shipped to backers now and we already shipped all of the base games ahead of schedule! We know how much time it will take for each part of the process until the game is delivered to you and we’ve established a realistic delivery plan we will meet!

Archon Loyalty Program

If you back Vanguard of War now, you will be become a member of our Loyalty Program. As an Archon Loyalty Program member, if you also back our next Kickstarter, you will receive a guaranteed bonus miniature absolutely free!

Risks and challenges

There are two major challenges when it comes to fulfilling our obligation to backers. The first is miniature production and the other is shipping.

We have a team of amazing artists who can draw and sculpt any character we can come up with and we own a unique miniature production process called Unicast, which allows us to create miniatures with unparalleled detail. You can see the production models made in Unicast for LOAD here: www.loadboardgame.com.

With LOAD delivery, we proved that we are able to deliver on time and we will do our best to do even better job with Vanguard of War!